1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to hydrocarbon well operations and equipment, and more particularly to a releasable connector assembly for a perforating gun and method of use.
2. Background
It is often desirable to automatically disconnect a tool from a string in a well after completion of a particular operation. For example, once a perforating gun suspended in a wellbore on a conveyor line (e.g., wireline, tubing, jointed tubing, coiled tubing, or slickline) has been detonated to achieve perforation of a target well zone, it may be advantageous for the perforating gun to automatically disconnect from the conveyor line. This is especially true in permanent completions where no additional conveyor line runs are desired. The automatic disconnection of the perforating gun from the conveyor line may be desirable because in certain formations, an inflow of formation fluids follows detonation and may cause the perforating gun to “sand up” and become stuck in the casing. Many such automatic releases are available from various manufacturers. A difficulty with some of these conventional automatic releases is that the perforating gun typically falls to the bottom of the well after detonation, and thus, the perforating gun is not recoverable.
To address this problem, some perforating gun strings may include modular perforating gun sections that automatically disconnect in a manner that allow the sections to be retrieved from the well after detonation. However, a problem with this approach is that the detonation of downhole explosives and/or the in-rush of well fluid may propel the disconnected sections up the wellbore and damage or “blow up” the well. Moreover, some existing gun release systems may not be useable in closed tubing applications where the pressure within the tubing string is less than the pressure in the wellbore.
Thus, there exists a continuing need for a perforating system having sections that automatically disconnect after detonation and yet do not pose a great danger to the well after disconnection.